Michie Tomizawa -- Voice

Ahhh...yes, the original "Sailor Moon" anime back in the early 1990s. Of course, the Sailors had to keep the Earth safe from all sorts of monsters but the one big reason that I enjoyed the show so much was the screwball comedy. I have yet to see any anime or even live-action series to come up with a sleeping-foot sequence that was so funny. Plus, another source of humour was the love-hate relationship between Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars. Usagi bristled at Rei's holier-than-thou attitude while Rei often despised Usagi's natural goofiness. It was no wonder that I always see Mars as being the crankiest of all of the Sailors.

Fortunately, Sailor Mars' seiyuu, Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）, seems far less crankier than her famous character. I discovered another tune by her, and this time for a change, it's neither related to "Sailor Moon" nor Christmas.

From her November 1994 mini-album, I give you the title track "Voice". As soon as I heard the arrangement, I knew it was so imbued with 1990s pop feeling, thanks to that certain synthesizer and the rap of those drums. With Tomizawa herself behind the lyrics and Ryo Ogura（小倉良）taking care of the melody, "Voice" is a very bouncy and happy tune that could probably describe a walk with Sailor Moon or even a performance by her other teammate Sailor Venus.

Wham!/Michie Tomizawa – Last Christmas

 

Source: https://www.discogs.com/pt_BR/Sailor-Moon-Merry-Christmas/release/6416512

Back in early December, at the beginning of one of the two year-end editions of FNS Kayousai (FNS歌謡祭), Johnny’s group Sexy Zone performed a song called “Last Christmas”. At first, I thought: here we go... Sexy Zone singing a cheesy Christmas song is probably not the best way to start a show. The thing is, while I generally don’t care for Christmas music, this one was somewhat cute, so I went back to look at the composer, and it was none other than George Michael. Shamefully, I haven’t heard this song before, or maybe didn’t pay attention to it.

I may be just a casual George Michael – or Wham!, for that matter – listener, but I’ve learnt to really appreciate some of their songs through the years, such as the silly, yet catchy “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, the summery “Club Tropicana”, or the more disco/R&B outputs in the form of “Outside”, “Fastlove” and “Too Funky”, from George Michael’s solo discography. Also, do I need to say how gorgeous “Careless Whisper” is? Alongside Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and Spandau Ballet’s “True”, “Careless Whisper” is one of my favourite 80s ballads.

Back to “Last Christmas”, while I’d enjoyed Sexy Zone’s performance of the song very much, it only stuck on me when, days after watching FNS Kayousai, YouTube recommended Wham!’s original version to me while I was watching some random 70s/80s/90s music videos – from Japanese artists to American/British ones – on a Sunday afternoon. The song really shined that time, and it probably helped that I was listening to the original version, and not a Johnny’s group covering it.

Released in December 1984 by Wham!, George Michael’s duo with Andrew Ridgeley, “Last Christmas” was a hit back in the day, and apparently became a modern Christmas staple alongside Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (just out of curiosity, here in Brazil, there’s a famous version of John’s song, “Então é Natal” by singer Simone, that’s still huge after 25 years of its release), and maybe a couple of other songs (Sir Paul McCartney's “Wonderful Christmastime” is also a playful attempt, so kudos to him).

What surprised me the most, though, is that “Last Christmas” seems to be especially popular in Japan, since not only Sezy Zone sang it live on FNS Kayousai, but it was also played in 1992’s movie “Mirai no Omoide: Last Christmas” (未来の想い出 Last Christmas), starring Misa Shimizu (清水美沙) and Shizuka Kudo (工藤静香) – which, by they way, I also watched around Christmas time –, and served as the theme song for the 2004 Fuji TV drama called... well, that’s it, “Last Christmas” (ラストクリスマス). Other than that, it was covered by boy band/R&B group EXILE at some point, and also by Sailor Mars’ seiyuu Michie Tomizawa (富沢美智恵), from popular anime series Sailor Moon (美少女戦士セーラームーン), in November 1996.

Besides the original one, Michie Tomizawa’s version was the one that made me feel really good. EXILE is okay, but I couldn’t resist this lovely feminine voice with some cheesy dialogues thrown between the singing parts, where Tomizawa almost whisper some random things right into the listener’s ears. It’s cute, warm and even a little bit sexy at some points. Other than that, the strings in the arrangement are a very strong adition, and while there’s nothing wrong with the original synthpop arrangement, this more classical feel that only strings can bring really contributed to the song’s more traditional Christmas mood.

Tomizawa’s version can be obscure outside Sailor Moon’s fandom, and can sound a little bit gimmicky if you’re not in the right mood, but I liked it very much. Thankfully I’ve found it by accident on YouTube, so now I will certainly listen to it on heavy rotation, just like the original one, even if we’re not around Christmas time anymore. A good pop song is a good pop song!

Main Cast of "Sailor Moon"/Momoiro Clover Z -- Moon Revenge

Well, it is the anniversary of the moon landing, after all! I couldn't let the day go by without ignoring this one. So I am continuing on from today's moon-theme songs.

I recall my anime buddy showing me "Sailor Moon R: The Movie"（劇場版美少女戦士セーラームーンR）from 1993 years ago, and from what I could remember was the title character dying (again) and revived (again) on some sort of meteor with all of the other Sailors collapsing on her in a heap of relieved tears. You know it's serious when even Sailor Mars is happy to see Sailor Moon alive again.

To be honest, it's been the ending theme of that movie, "Moon Revenge", which has stuck with me in the years since. With the clamor of banging 80s synths and percussion, the song just takes off with such an intrepid beat that it could probably go up against "Moonlight Densetsu"（ムーンライト伝説）as the theme for the franchise. The music seems to be fairly screaming "I'M SAILOR MOON, B**CH!"

And for that, we have to thank singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）for that melody and lyricist Kayoko Fuyumori（冬杜花代子）. "Moon Revenge" got no higher than No. 85 on Oricon, but I think the Sailor Moon fans will always cherish it. Besides the entire main cast is behind the mike: Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, Aya Hisakawa（久川綾）, Emi Shinohara（篠原恵美）, Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）and Rika Fukami（深見梨加）.

I read that "Moon Revenge" has been covered by a few other singers including songwriter Kosaka herself back in 2013. And I did find this cover by dynamic aidoru group Momoiro Clover Z（ももいろクローバーZ）which was released in July 2014 as a part of their 12th single, "Moon Pride", the opening theme for the reboot series "Sailor Moon Crystal"（美少女戦士セーラームーンCrystal）. The single peaked at No. 3. Nice guitar solo but I will have to go with the original.

Michie Tomizawa -- White Christmas

Well, since I did mention her in passing in the last article, and I'm sure at least some of you went "HUH?!" when you read about her in that article, I think my last J-Xmas article for this season can be on this lady.

Seiyuu Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）, aka the snarky Rei Hino/Sailor Mars from the original TV Asahi anime "Sailor Moon"（セーラームーン）, performed her own sweet version of "White Christmas" as a contribution to the Xmas album "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon SuperS: Christmas For You"（美少女戦士セーラームーンSuperS Christmas For You）in December 1995. The arrangement, notably the strings, is such that it actually sounds like it could mesh in well with the original background music of the series.

Although sailormusic.net mentions that this particular album is out of print, I think Amazon Japan has scrounged up a few copies here and there. After all, for fans, it just wouldn't be a Christmas if it isn't a Sailor Christmas.

Main Cast of "Sailor Moon" -- Tuxedo Mirage（タキシード・ミラージュ）

Halloween is once again upon us. I was checking a YouTube live stream camera overlooking the famous scramble crossing in front of Shibuya Station in Tokyo on Saturday morning (Saturday night in Japan). Considering the maelstrom of costume-wearing folks that has descended upon the area in recent years, I had been expecting a similar sight. However, due to the effects of Typhoon No. 22, the whole thing was literally a washout. Perhaps things might be different on Tuesday October 31st.

I may have mentioned this before in previous Halloween entries on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" but during the first several years of my stay in Chiba, the spooky holiday barely existed in Japanese pop culture. In fact, the only sign was a rogue bunch of English teachers who would hijack one car on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo for one round trip of costumed carousing. Of course, the local police did their best to deter the relative miscreants.

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In those early years, some of my fellow English teachers at NOVA and I tried to spread the word about Halloween to students through special events which even involved some of us wearing costumes. I made my own get-up in the form of Tuxedo Kamen（タキシード仮面...Tuxedo Mask）, the mysterious figure and love interest of the famous Sailor Moon（美少女戦士セーラームーン）since I did watch the series on videotape when I was back in Toronto in the early 90s.

Basically it involved a dark suit, a bow tie and the mask (both made of construction paper). Unfortunately if not particularly surprisingly, I didn't really get much of a response from most of the students (middle-aged people tend not to watch "Sailor Moon") on the costume but hey, the pumpkin carving was fun! And no, I didn't try to get long-stemmed roses either. There are a few photos of me on that night but they are staying locked up tighter than those JFK files...but the US government finally opened those last week, didn't it?

Let us now segue then to one of the many ending themes for "Sailor Moon", in this case, "Tuxedo Mirage" which was sung at the end of each episode during the third season known as "Sailor Moon S" between 1994 and 1995.

This was performed by the main cast of the show, namely the five Sailors: Moon, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Venus as acted by Kotono Mitsuishi（三石琴乃）, Aya Hisakawa（久川綾）, Michie Tomizawa（富沢美智恵）, Emi Shinohara（篠原恵美）and Rika Fukami（深見梨加）respectively.

With lyrics by "Sailor Moon" creator Naoko Takeuchi（武内直子）and music by singer-songwriter Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）, "Tuxedo Mirage" kinda struck me as sounding like a 1980s power pop ballad with ambitions of grandeur along the lines of those charity singles that were huge back then such as "We Are The World" and "Do They Know It's Christmas?". One would think that the song was trying to raise money for suffering formal wear stores.

The song was released as a single in October 1994 and reached as high as No. 53 on Oricon.